ASEAN ministers vow to combat transnational crime

ASEAN ministers vow to combat transnational crime

Thanaporn Promyamyai, Agence France-Presse, Bangkok

Southeast Asian ministers meeting in the Thai capital vowed on
Thursday to speed up an action plan aimed at combating regional
transnational crime as their annual talks on the issue wrapped
up.

In a joint communique issued at the conclusion of the meeting,
ministers voiced concern over rising cross-border crime including
terror attacks and said they were committed to strengthening
information and intelligence exchange.

"We view with concern the proliferation of transnational
crime, including acts of terrorism that threaten the security,
peace and stability of our region and therefore reaffirm our
commitment to enhance cooperation...," they said.

"We are committed to accelerating the implementation of the
work program to implement the ASEAN Plan of Action to Combat
Transnational Crime," they said, referring to a program they
adopted in 2002.

That program calls for cooperation in combating eight areas of
transnational crime: trafficking in persons, drugs and arms, sea
piracy, money laundering, terrorism and international economic
and cyber crime.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers,
who will meet with their counterparts from China, Japan and South
Korea on Saturday for the first time as a group, said they would
in particular cooperate further in curtailing terrorism.

"We reaffirm our resolve to take a comprehensive and
coordinated approach in addressing the various areas of
transnational crimes that have links to terrorism," their
communique said.

The meeting had as a backdrop the ongoing search in southern
Thailand for assailants who mounted coordinated daring attacks on
an army base and schools Sunday that left four soldiers dead.

Two policemen died a day later as they tried to defuse a bomb.
No arrests have yet been made.

Malaysia and Thailand have said they are cooperating to track
down the perpetrators.

Earlier Thursday Thai Deputy Prime Minister Bhokin Bhalakula
told the ministers that Thailand's strategy of involving
communities in its war on drugs could be mimicked by ASEAN to
battle transnational crime.

"The state should decentralize and devolve its power to local
authorities and people so that they can collaborate in the war
against transnational crime," Bhokin said, adding that people's
participation should be encouraged while criminal activity was
curtailed.

"Thailand for example has consistently followed this policy,
recently by declaring the 'war against drugs' and achieved
enormous success," he said.